1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to a communications and alarm system for providing secure and reliable patient monitoring and also for monitoring the operational status of various types of medical equipment such as, but not limited to, intravenous feeding devices, defibrillators, ventilators, EKG, EEG and pulse monitors. The equipment used with the present system includes emergency equipment employed in a pre-hospital setting, such as in ambulances or at the site of accidents; equipment in post-hospital settings, such as in a patient's home, in a nursing home, in a hospice, in a Doctor's office, in a clinic or at medical teaching institutions and equipment used in the hospital such as in the recovery room or in the operating room.
The invention is capable of providing a means for communicating medical information over long distances and for immediately summoning the appropriate medical and hospital personnel to the patient in need of help. The invention is silent and unobservable to the patient to prevent unnecessary stress or trauma. The system can also reduce the stress level of the medical and hospital staff and other patients. Another aspect of the present invention is to provide monitoring equipment that can be conveniently worn on medical personnel in order to foster communications that indicate more information to the user and for hospital administrators. A further aspect of the invention is to provide for a communications system that enables medical personnel to remotely test the operational status of medical equipment and provide better staffing management for medical emergencies communicated by the system.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Critically ill patient and life support equipment monitors and alarm systems are well known. Typically, the monitor includes an audio alarm located next to the patient's bed attached to the patient's life support medical equipment. Intravenous (IV) feeders and ventilators are examples of life support equipment that include an audio alarm if the equipment should malfunction or stop completely. The principal problem with these alarm devices is the stress and trauma that the audio alarm can render to a critically ill patient. Not only is the audio alarm sound often startling to the patient, but it could also trigger a panic state with corresponding psychophysiology contributing to or resulting in the inability to marshal an adequate defense against disease.
Examples of intensive alarm systems abound. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,803,471 shows a ventilator monitor and alarm apparatus issued to Rowland on Feb. 7, 1989. U.S. Pat. No. 4,550,726 issued to McEwen on Nov. 5, 1985 shows a method and apparatus for the detection of breathing gas interruption typically for a ventilator; U.S. Pat. No. 4,155,375 issued to Dahl, May 22, 1979, discloses a patient ventilator disconnect alarm which causes an audible alarm condition; U.S. Pat. No. 3,877,467 shows an artificial U.S. Pat. No. 4,316,182 issued to Hodgson Feb. 16, 1982 shows a ventilator disconnection alarm. All of these alarm systems basically provide for audio and/or visual alarms at the patient's bedside. Because the sound alert is placed within the hearing range of the patient, however, the alarm sound can greatly disturb, if not traumatize, the patient and, in fact, exacerbate the patient's decline toward death.
Small pocket sized paging devices which provide audio and tactile vibrational signals to alert the person carrying a pager of a remote call or message also are known. U.S. Pat. No. 4,879,759 issued to Matsumoto, et al. Nov. 7, 1989, for example, shows a pager with the extra function of a vibrator. Also, U.S. Pat. No. 4,918,438 shows a paging receiver having an audible and a vibrator annunciating means issued to Yamasaki, Apr. 17, 1990. U.S. Pat. No. 4,786,889 issued to Hayasaka shows a battery casing for a paging receiver which includes a vibrating housing for alerting someone through a pager without audible sound. U.S. Pat. No. 4,794,392 issued to Selinko on Dec. 27, 1988, describes a vibrator alert device for a communication receiver, which is essentially a paging device.
Although the prior art paging equipment does show the use of vibration with or without an audio sound, heretofore such paging equipment does not function in combination with a communications system linked to medical equipment to provide a non-audible and more critically, automatic alarm to doctors, technicians and nurses in the patient vicinity without disturbing the patient, and without requiring intermediate action by a paging supervisor to activate pagers in response to the alarm.
A further disadvantage of prior art pagers is their limited capability for providing information to the user and for enabling that user to respond quickly and effectively. Typically, pager communications are limited to providing an audio tone coupled with a lighted display. The alarm produced by the pager may also contain an image of a phone number that the wearer is supposed to call in response to the alarm. One drawback to such pagers is that the person wearing the pager is not informed of the actual nature of the problem until he/she telephones the sender. In those instances where a phone is not readily available to the paged party, critical response time is lost possibly endangering the patient's life. Thus, a need exists for a paging device that communicates detailed information about the patient and allows for a rapid response by the recipient.
A further disadvantage of conventional pagers is that the information must be relayed to the recipient through other personnel. There is thereby some risk that inaccurate information may be conveyed to the doctor particularly when the medical staff conveying the information is under pressure and stress. Miscommunication is exacerbated in emergencies, such as "code blue" alerts. A need thereby also exists for a paging system that communicates information directly from critical medical equipment to the recipient avoiding the possible delay and miscommunication by an intermediary.
Conventional pagers also are limited to only receiving messages. However, the message recipient frequently needs to urgently communicate to others. A pager having a two-way communications capability is thereby essential in many emergency situations.
Another drawback of conventional communications devices is the relative inconvenience of two-way walkie-talkie RF devices used principally by emergency medical technicians to communicate with one another, and with the hospital emergency room. Typical walkie-talkie arrangements consist of a speaker/microphone attached to a transceiver and power supply which are all arranged in the same cabinet. The speaker and microphone design, however, has several drawbacks. First, critical messages are often relayed to emergency medical personnel loudly and intrusively causing possible debilitating distress to the patient. Second, the structural arrangement of walkie-talkies is inconvenient since the user must physically place the walkie-talkie close to his mouth when speaking. Thus, at least one hand is occupied operating the walkie-talkie. In an emergency where the emergency medical technician is under severe time constraints to perform CPR or to move an injured person as well as communicate with the emergency room, the loss of one hand can be a severe detriment.
Finally, many paging/emergency communications systems fail to coordinate automatically and flexibly with the variable staffing conditions. Thus, if necessary staff are either not "on call" or are preoccupied with other more urgent medical situations, there is a need to provide a fail-safe management device for routing calls to available staff so that quick responses to medical emergencies can be maximized and so that a response is provided to a person in need at all times.
The present invention overcomes the problems of the prior art by a communications/alarm system for providing secure, efficient and reliable communications concerning the medical conditions of patients and the status and operational conditions of any medical equipment that may be used in a pre-hospital, post-hospital or in-hospital setting. The present system is designed so that communications do not disturb or traumatize the patient. Only necessary hospital personnel, such as doctors, nurses or technicians responsible for the patient and the life support equipment, are alerted. Information is conveyed silently by using vibration annunciation, specially designed lighted displays, or communications devices that have minimum audio warning features.
The displays delineate the specific patient having problems, specific defective equipment, the patient location and/or designation, the equipment name, or other relevant information read directly off of the equipment. In addition, a communications management system is provided which flexibly links hospital staffing circumstances with the medical needs of various patients.